Ditched
by arcticcomet
Summary: Aaron's back where he should be and it's time for celebration and new beginnings.


**I. Aaron**

"Anyone else up for some celebratory drinks?" asked Seth, walking behind Aaron and Emily in the West Wing later that night, hours after Kirkman's speech.

"I'm in," replied Emily, and Aaron could feel her eyes on him a she waited for his response.

"Sounds good, but I promised my cousin I'd meet her after work," he said.

"Well, she's always welcome to join us," assured Seth.

He shrugged.

"All right, then. I'll let her know." Nadia would be over the moon with the news of his new job and getting to meet Seth and Emily, but the last thing he needed was for her to needle him about Emily. Again.

 _"What's so complicated about the two of you? You like her, she likes you. Ask her out. See, it's perfectly simple."_

 _If only._ His cousin had a way of simplifying things, and he guessed that on the surface it really did seem juvenile to be so hesitant about it. It only made sense if you knew the whole truth, which he had no interest in sharing with anyone. Maybe thinking about the whole mess would sting less a few years from now. For now he'd rather focus on the positives: he was back in the West Wing, for one. He had a great boss and got to work with good friends, doing what he loved and excelled in. Considering where he'd been just a few months ago, it wasn't a bad deal at all.

"So, any idea what you'll be doing now that you're back?" asked Seth.

Aaron shook his head, taking a sip of his whiskey.

"None whatsoever, but we're talking about Kirkman here. I doubt he'll make me scrub the toilets."

Emily chuckled.

"I think he likes you more than me now," she joked.

"That's impossible."

It was a ridiculous thought, but the joke still reached its mark and warmed his heart. He'd left Kirkman's service believing that neither he or Emily viewed him as trustworthy, and now the President had proven that he'd been wrong. He wanted nothing more than to be proven to be wrong about Emily, too. He wanted her to believe in him the way Kirkman did. She wasn't the type to take a risk, so the odds of anything ever happening between them again were nonexistent, as much as he hated to admit it. He silently cursed his own inability to read her. If he could be at least reasonably sure that she still wanted it, he'd gamble once more and ask her out one more time. There were few things in life he hated more than giving up, which was the reason he was still in D.C. after resigning for the second time in the span of a few months.

As things were, he had no idea where he stood with her, as far as anything beyond their friendship and working relationship went. Could it still be possible to mend things, to end up back where they'd been that night she'd kissed him, or was it a useless daydream? As hard as he tried to block the memory, it pushed its way to the forefront of his mind at least once every time he talked to her. He wanted to do it again, and go even further, show her everything he had, everything they could be together.

Aaron couldn't deny that being asked to come back by Kirkman had given him hope that maybe his professional life wasn't the only thing he'd lost because of the investigation that could still be fixed, even after all this time. It was silly to tie them together like that, but he wanted to believe, although as far as he knew, she could be seeing someone. He didn't think she was, with her working schedule it seemed unlikely, but it wasn't as if he'd asked. She'd nearly gotten engaged to someone else right after the Capitol bombing. Life worked in strange ways sometimes, and Emily turning down her boyfriend's proposal had opened the way for him to charm her. Not that he would've necessarily backed off for good even if she'd said yes.

 **II. Emily**

Aaron was really back. The reality hadn't hit her just yet, but it would as soon as they started working together again. None of them knew what he was going to be doing, but Kirkman knew his abilities and would give him an important position. There would be more late nights with just the two of them, and she looked forward to them, yearned for their heated but good-natured debates on issues both big and small. She wanted to see his eyes light up when she told him something new about herself, as if everything about her was the most interesting piece of news he'd heard that day, and knowing that he was unlikely to forget anything she revealed.

She couldn't know for sure if he still wanted something to happen between them, but even if he did, she knew him well enough to know that chances were he wasn't going to take the risk of asking her out again. He'd done it twice already and in the end it had amounted to nothing. The ball was in her court, so to speak. What did she have to lose by asking him out? Well, it'd be awkward to work together if he refused, or if it ended up not working out between them. She wanted him as her colleague and friend, too, but would that ever be enough if they never even gave their relationship a chance to get off the ground properly?

It had been only his cousin that time, but _someday_ another woman would ask him out, or he'd ask her out, and even the hypothetical chance of them would be gone in a flash. Ever since the first shock of his resignation and new job with Hookstraten had passed, Emily had gradually begun to toy with the idea of dating him after all. The only problem was that the more time had passed, the more difficult it had become to act on those thoughts. Now, with his return, the playing field had changed yet again and she didn't know what to do with it.

Thinking about all the things she knew about Aaron because of her investigation made her feel slightly guilty, but the truth was that there was nothing that would've turned her off, nothing about his personal history that would've made him less appealing to her. Even before she'd read any of it, getting to know him had taught her not to judge a book by its cover. There were so many good things Aaron kept hidden about himself, for what she guessed was a fear of someone seeing them as weaknesses and exploiting them. Emily had thought that the feelings would fade with time, especially once he'd left, but that hadn't happened. She still had to limit her eye contact with him just to stay sane, and never before had she found that suspenders could look so sexy on a man.

When Seth excused himself two drinks later, Emily was feeling a little bolder. If she wanted to do it tonight, this was her chance. If he said no, she could finish her drink, go home and in the morning tell him that she hadn't actually meant anything by it.

"So... What's going on in your life?" he asked. "Seeing anyone?" he continued, his tone casual, but the way he wasn't quite meeting her eyes told her what he was hoping to hear. Her heart skipped a beat at the realization.

"No. It'd be a challenge with my schedule."

"Yeah, that's for sure."

"It'd have to be someone who could understand my work."

"Definitely."

"Maybe someone who'd even work with me," she said, nearly bursting into laughter when he finally turned to face her, his eyes wide and hopeful. Oh, God. She was really going to do it, wasn't she?

"There's a nice Italian place nearby... And their kitchen doesn't close until 11. We could still make it if we leave now... You know, before the next national crisis hits," she exhaled, hoping he wouldn't notice the way her voice shook.

"Are you sure?" he asked carefully.

"Yeah, I am."

"Let's go then," he agreed, jumping off his chair.

"It's this way," she told him, reaching for his hand to pull him into the right direction. Their palms met and after a moment's pause, his fingers curled around hers as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Come on," she muttered, squeezing his hand. Many things still had to be said in order to truly clear the air between them, but for now she was willing to go where her gut led her.

 **III. Seth**

"You have got to be kidding me..." Seth muttered under his breath, seeing the unoccupied chairs.

"Did you see where those two went?" he inquired the bartender, pointing at the two empty glasses on the counter. He didn't have much faith he'd see Aaron or Emily until the morning.

The bartender shrugged in response.

"No clue, but they seemed pretty cozy. They may have mentioned something about having dinner."

"Right. Well, thanks."

"Can I get you another drink?"

"Sure."

Seth shook his head as he slipped back into his own seat, chuckling. Those two were something else. You could never tell what they were up to, and their little game had been an endless source of exasperation and amusement for him over the last few months. It was a miracle it had lasted this long. He didn't know half of what had passed between them, but even he could tell that their story was only starting. The idea of them together had a sense of rightness, the same one as Kirkman's presidency. The silver lining in the darkness that Seth had been desperate to find since the bombing. Not all consequences of that terrible day were bad.

He dug out his phone to type a text to his now absent friends.

 _Not fair, you guys. Not fair at all._

Emily's reply came through first, it was short and sweet.

 _:)_

Aaron's was a longer one.

 _Buy Nadia a drink for me, ok?_

Seth typed a reply.

 _Consider it done, man._

As he sipped his beer, the door opened and a young woman with dark curly hair entered the bar. Seth observed her as she scanned the entire room and then turned to her phone, cursing under her breath. He couldn't make out the words, but he was fairly sure one of them was "Aaron".

"Excuse me. Are you Nadia?"

She turned to face him, her keen dark eyes flashing in recognition.

"I am! And you're Seth Wright, the Press Secretary. I'm sorry, I didn't see you before. Where's Aaron? He's not answering his phone."

Seth hesitated, unsure how much she knew and how much Aaron would like him to tell her.

"Something came up, and he had to go. But he asked me to buy you a drink, if that's any consolation," he told her apologetically.

"I could definitely use that drink, especially if he's paying for it," Nadia replied, chuckling.

"So... Does the 'something that came up' happen to have anything to do with Emily Rhodes? she asked, after ordering her drink.

Seth couldn't suppress a grin. She did know something.

"What makes you think that?" he asked.

"Well, she's not here either although she was supposed to be, and you're being evasive. Dead giveaway. You're a good Press Secretary, but bad at hiding things," she told him.

Seth laughed, realizing how long it'd been since he'd sat drinking next to a woman who wasn't strictly a friend. There had been nobody since the disaster between him and Lisa Jordan, and he found himself enjoying the company of the lively and direct woman beside him.

"Okay, you caught me. They were here, but left when I was in the men's room. I don't know where they went."

"Fair enough. Shall we drink a toast?"

"To what?"

"I thought I was coming to celebrate Aaron's new job, but obviously he'd rather celebrate with someone else, so I say we drink to new friends."

"To new friends, then."

"To new friends."


End file.
